French biscuits found to contain up to 60% sugar

Supermarket biscuits with 60% sugar and the lobby funding the studies

A French investigative documentary aired on La Noche Temática claims that biscuits containing up to 60% sugar are sold on shelves in any supermarket. The piece, available online, discusses sugar addiction in modern diets and how the industry pressures for favorable legislation through marketing and self-funded scientific studies. While focused on France, this mechanism of sugar overdose extends without borders.

The obvious question: if sugar is so prevalent, why is it so hard to see on labels?

Why 'light' biscuits have more calories than regular ones

The figures are confusing. A diet brand averages 450 kcal per 100 grams. Traditional classics hover around 435 kcal. Less sugar, more calories. The math explains it quickly: sugar provides 500 calories per 100 grams, while oils reach up to 900. If manufacturers reduce sugar, they add fat. Sugar, fat, and a pinch of salt: the perfect combination to keep hands reaching for the packet.

That’s why the light claim works. Many consumers read "0% fat" and approve without checking the rest of the mini-label. The shiny packaging does the work that the actual composition wouldn’t withstand.

Corn syrups: the sugar that doesn't call itself sugar

One repeated thesis states that it isn’t cane or beet sugar, but sugars extracted from corn and chemically treated into syrups and powders added to processed foods. They are attributed with massive insulin release, damaging the pancreas and liver, causing excess fat, type II diabetes, and vascular problems. They are present in any canned, packaged, or processed meat product.

It’s worth separating fact from fiction. Some argue glucose is glucose and fructose is fructose, and harm comes not from the molecule but from frequency: eating fruit at noon isn’t the same as maintaining high glucose levels all day, teaspoon by teaspoon, between coffee, soda, dessert, gum, and candy. This continuous drip is what desensitizes insulin.

---

---

From traffic light labels to pending regulations

Labeling remains the battlefield. Proposed nutritional traffic lights would have solved much of the problem at a glance, but they stalled. What remains is the manual method: stopping in the store, reading calmly, and deciphering the various names one ingredient can take. A detective task the average shopper eventually abandons.

This adds to the lack of clear information about dangerous foods and little push for a healthy lifestyle. Sugar, they remind us, doesn’t just cause weight gain: it also causes cavities.

Quitting sugar: recovered gums and lost weight staying off

Personal testimonies point in the same direction. One participant quit sugar four years ago after his dentist warned him of early periodontitis. His gums don’t bleed, he has no new cavities, and he claims to have regenerated more than a millimeter of gum tissue, something his own dentist confirmed despite literature saying it’s unrecoverable. He also hasn’t gained weight.

Another similar case stems from years of drinking liters of cola during adolescence. Sorbitol and sweeteners in sugar-free versions are under scrutiny. The repeated conclusion isn’t just how much sugar, but how frequently it enters the body.

Paleo vs. Vegetarian: the diet war

When sugar is removed, the million-dollar question arises: then, what do we eat? Some abandon grains and dairy, defending it with their own vitality data. Others cite a classic study on diet and disease as reference, only to be told that work is widely debunked and lacks rigor on certain issues.

The circulating list of considered healthy carbohydrates prioritizes fruit, vegetables, and nuts, placing animal products in the last tier, not exceeding 20-25% of total calories. Opposing this are those who remember low-carb diets (like Atkins) often fail long-term. In the middle, an uncomfortable fact: food allergies have multiplied—to eggs, lactose, nuts—and no one fully explains it. Excessive hygiene in childhood, processed food, and other hypotheses remain on the table without consensus.

The bitter end

Substitute marketing drives its own business. Against stevia plants bought to sweeten coffee, evidence shows homeopathic preparations sold in ridiculous quantities do practically nothing, neither raising nor lowering cholesterol: they only scratch your pocket. Ultimately, as the least segarro option summarizes, the best substitute for sugar is none. Coffee black.

The documentary leaves the bar where it was: the industry has its studies, the label has its fine print, and the consumer has their eyes open. There’s no way around it.